Robert Poli was president of the PATCO union of air traffic controllers when they struck in 1981 and were fired by president Reagan. The controllers waged a struggle that lasted months and won broad working-class support, best exemplified by the 500,000-strong Solidarity Day march in Washington on September 19, 1981. Reagan's firing of strikers gave employers a green light to attack workers and their unions. Poli died in 2014.